Method and system for cross-carrier parcel tracking

ABSTRACT

A system and method is provided that enables a carrier of a mailpiece, such as a national postal service, to track a mailpiece as it passes from the control of a first carrier to the control of another, second carrier. The tracking of the mailpiece continues until the mailpiece is delivered, by the second carrier, to its ultimate recipient. In this manner the first carrier, who had control of the mailpiece when first posted, can monitor the handling of the mailpiece and can calculate delivery times when the mailpiece was in the control of the second carrier. The method and system of the present invention will find particular application to a national postal service seeking to track delivery performance of internationally addressed express mail that is first domestically posted and then ultimately delivered in a foreign country by the postal service of the foreign country.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/166,491, filed Jun. 10, 2002, which claims the benefit ofU.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/296,448, filed on Jun. 8, 2001,the entirety of both are incorporated by reference herein.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

The invention was made by an agency of the United States government orunder a contract with an agency of the United States government, theUnited States Postal Service (“USPS” or “Postal Service”), anindependent establishment of the executive branch of the U.S.government.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates generally to a method and system for providingcross-carrier tracking and accountability techniques. More particularlythe invention relates to marking passage of a mailpiece from the controlof one carrier of the mailpiece to the control of another carrier. Thetechnique to record the passage of control may be accomplished throughmethods such as bar code scanning or optical character recognitiontechniques. The invention allows mailpieces to be time-tracked, andprovides financial incentives to postal administrations to meet targetdelivery dates.

2. Description of the Related Art

Currently, if an express parcel is shipped from the United States to aforeign country via the LISPS, the USPS loses control of the parcel onceit leaves U.S. soil. This makes it difficult for the USPS to guaranteedelivery within a specified time frame. The same problem exists in anysituation in which delivery of a mailpiece is started by one entity andcompleted by a second entity. The first entity must have the cooperationof the second entity in order to track, manage, and monitor deliveryperformance by the second entity. In this same manner, foreign countriesalso face similar constraints with cross-border shipping into the UnitedStates. Foreign entities thus also seek methods by which to monitor andimprove their express mail deliveries into the US.

Companies such as UPS and Federal Express do not operate with thisdisadvantage since they control the parcel door-to-door. As a result,the market sometimes perceives a benefit to transmitting overseasexpress parcels through carriers other than the USPS.

This invention is intended to level the playing field by introducingcross-border tracking and accountability techniques. The inventionallows all parcels to be time-tracked, and provides financial incentivesto national postal administrations to meet target delivery dates.

For example the USPS currently pays foreign postal administrations fordelivering Express Mail without taking into account whether or not theproduct met service performance standards. In addition foreign postaladministrations reimburse the USPS for delivering Express Mail withoutregard for service performance.

Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method that allows a mailservice to improve the delivery of express mail for internationaldestinations. It is desirable to provide a method that obtains theseadvantages without requiring investment in expensive or costlymachinery.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and methodfor tracking mail that is delivered by two entities. The presentinvention has particular application to express mail, that is mail to bedelivered on an expedited basis. When express mail is sent that has aninternational delivery, the national postal services of two countrieswill be involved. The present system provides advantages that the twocountries can follow in delivering such mail,

It is a further object of the present invention to provide incentivemethods for international express mail delivery. The incentive methodsinclude tracking mail as it proceeds on the course of delivery. Thecompensation that is paid to the postal service in the deliveringcountry is tied to the speed at which delivery takes place. For example,a higher compensation is paid when a higher percentage of express mailis delivered within a certain time period. This form of compensationmotivates the delivering country to deliver express mail promptly,

An additional object of the present invention is that it provides asystem and method whereby delivery services can mutually trackdeliveries of express mail. Where for instance one country sends its ownexpress mail to a second country, while at the same time delivering theother country's express mail in its own country, both countries canimplement the present invention. The method allows the two countries totrack their own delivery performance and the other's deliveryperformance. Based upon certain criteria, the two countries cancalculate offsets for compensation.

Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth inpart in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious fromthe description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. Theobjects and advantages of the invention will be realized and attained bymeans of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in theappended claim. It is to be understood that both the foregoing generaldescription and the following detailed description are exemplary andexplanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.Thus, the present invention comprises a combination of features, steps,and advantages which enable it to overcome various deficiencies of theprior art. The various characteristics described above, as well as otherfeatures, will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art uponreading the following detailed description of the preferred embodimentsof the invention, and by referring to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings,which form a part of the specification, and wherein;

FIG. 1 is a schematic showing the cross-carrier parcel tracking systemof the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing tracking steps involved in the method ofthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Reference will now be made in detail to exemplary embodiments of theinvention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be usedthroughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

Referring initially to FIG. 1 there is shown a schematic of the presentinvention. The invention may be applied to inter-country orintra-country shipping scenarios depending on the circumstances. Forpurposes of example only, the invention is discussed below in connectionwith inter-country express mail deliveries between the United StatesPostal Service (USPS) and the postal services of countries such asJapan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Australia, New Zealand, andGreat Britain. In this example, the term “parcel” refers to an expressmailpiece. However, in its broadest sense, the invention is not solimited. The invention can be used in connection with any mailpiece,package, or other item conventionally carried by public carriers such asthe USPS, or private carriers such as Federal Express or United ParcelService. In addition, the invention may be used by cooperating freightor moving companies who work together to transport consumer goods,furniture, vehicles, or other items that require transportation.

Once an express parcel enters the destination country, a time isrecorded. A second time is recorded when the parcel is delivered to theintended recipient and an elapsed time “in-country” is computed. If theparcel has to go through customs, any customs delay may be deducted. Theelapsed time in-country may determine how much the postal administrationin the destination country is paid by the postal administration in thecountry of the parcel's origin. For example, the system might beconfigured to compare the elapsed time in-country with a performancestandard. If the elapsed time in-country exceeds the performancestandard, the postal administration in the country in which the parcelwas delivered may be penalized by receiving a reduced delivery fee fromthe postal administration in the country of the parcel's origin.

There will be specific performance standards that will likely differ foreach country as a function of each country's demographics and geography.In Singapore and Hong Kong, for example, the urban delivery areas arenot very big. However, China has extremely large urban delivery areas.Thus, the performance standards for some Chinese cities may allow moretime for delivery than for cities in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Specific performance standards and penalties for each country have yetto be developed. However, as an example, the standard delivery time fora parcel entering the United States may be 3 days from the date theparcel reaches U.S. soil and clears customs. If 90 percent of mailpiecesare delivered within 3 days in-country, the USPS may receive 100 percentof the USPS delivery charges from the postal service of the originatingforeign country. If, however, only 70 percent are delivered within thetime standard, the USPS may only receive 80 percent of USPS's deliverycharges. As a result if a participating country does not adopt propercontrols, penalties may prevent them from covering its delivery costs.

The delivery data gathered in the U.S. might be fed through the MIDASsystem, which is a military and international dispatch accountabilitysystem. That system will collect data on each item. As each item comesinto the country, the item is scanned. The scanned data goes throughMIDAS, then through a database and eventually, ends up in anotherdatabase called GEIS in Belgium. The International Post Corporation(IPC) in Belgium collects all that data. It also collects data fromother countries worldwide. IPC is developing a table that will enablecountries to determine if delivery times are met. This, in turn, willenable penalties to be charged to countries who do not meet performancestandards.

Various countries may have their own internal data gathering system tosend information to the International Post Corporation's GEIS database.Each mailpiece might be assigned a unique identifier code that will staywith the piece throughout the entire process. So if the GEIS databasesays that piece Xis delivered in the U.S., a computer look-up at theUSPS using the same identification code might confirm the delivery.Similarly, the country of origin may access their system and look up thesame piece X.

In terms of cooperation between countries, each country pre-advisesothers on the number of bags and containers of mail headed their way.Manifests allow the USPS to keep track of the identity of each mailpiecein each bag and container when they leave this country. The same is truefor foreign countries. So the USPS knows, for example, that on Jun. 1,20XX, it will receive 16 bags from Hong Kong on United flight 01.

Participating countries may scan the mail upon entry and upon delivery.Alternatively, they can avoid the entry scan by relying on bag/containercontent data provide by the originating country. This may beaccomplished, for example, if each country sends and receives PREDES 2and RESDES messages. These are messages available on current shippingpackages. They provide a pre-advice of items that will be shipped to aforeign country from a shipping country. They also provide a returncommunication from a receiving country to the shipping country statingthe identity of items actually received, and any items on the pre-advicethat were not received.

Each individual letter carrier in the United States has a scanner, andpreferably, cooperating countries will provide the same to their lettercarriers. Each letter carrier might then scan a delivery item upondelivery or upon an attempted delivery. Once a delivery is attempted,the delivery postal service will receive credit as if the parcel hadbeen delivered. In some instances, scanned data may be transferredinstantaneously to a central database. In others, transfer may occurwithin 24 hours. Preferably the exporting and importing country willrelay scanning data within a specified time.

By incentivizing timely delivery, national postal services can guaranteecrossborder delivery time, increasing reliability and thereby improvingmarket share.

Technology may be used to ensure that scans are captured accurately andare transmitted within a timely manner. That technology might alsoensure that each country transmits the data within hours of capturingit. This will enable countries to track their own, and perhaps eachother's performance in real time. Using this technology, it may bepossible to log on the system on Monday and see a bird's eye overview ofa previous week's performance for each participating country. The USPSmight learn, for example, that in the previous week, it met performancestandards 90 percent of the time, while Country Z only met performancestandards 50 percent of the time. This will allow the USPS to quicklydetermine whether Country Z will get paid or whether Country Z will haveto make a balancing payment to the USPS.

The invention will now be described in connection with attached FIG. 1.For ease of discussion, FIG. 1 illustrates two domains. However, theinvention can be used in connection with many more than two domains.Depending on how the invention is implemented, each domain may be aseparate country, a separate region within a country, the territory of apublic or private carrier, or a carrier's customer base (which couldoverlap with other carrier's customer bases). As illustrated in theupper left-hand corner of FIG. 1, a sender 100 in Domain 1 transmits aparcel using a Carrier 1 110 associated with Domain 1. Most likely, theCarrier 1 will scan the parcel upon receipt from the sender and uponpassing-off 120 the parcel to Carrier 2 130. However, for ease ofdiscussion, scans by the originating carrier are not illustrated in FIG.1.

Carrier 1 hands-off the parcel 120 to Carrier 2 (e.g., by shipping itvia air, delivering it by truck, etc.). When the parcel is received byCarrier 2, the parcel receives a D2 scan 140. The scan may beaccomplished by physically scanning each parcel in a container receivedfrom the originating carrier, or more likely by entering a container orbag code into a system linked to data already collected by Carrier 1regarding the contents of the container/bag (PREDES 2 information).

When Carrier 2 delivers the parcel to the recipient in Domain 2, theparcel receives an 12 scan 150. The D2 scan and the 12 scan areelectronically transmitted to a processor which performs a subtraction160 to determine the elapsed in-country delivery time. That elapsed timedata is collected and compiled with other Domain 2 delivery data.

Similarly, a sender 200 in Domain 2 uses a Carrier 2 to initiallytransmit a parcel destined for Domain 1. Carrier 2 passes-off 210 theparcel to Carrier 1 at which point a D1 220 time scan is taken in amanner similar to the D2 scan described above. Upon delivery toRecipient 1 in Domain 1, an I2 230 time scan is taken. The I1 and D1time scans are subtracted 240 to determine an elapsed delivery time, andthat elapsed time is collected with other elapsed time data for Carrier1. While, for ease of discussion, the description refers to “I scans,”it is contemplated that elapsed delivery time could also be based oneither an I scan (delivery) or an H scan (attempted delivery).

The elapsed time data of Carrier 1 and Carrier 2 are then sent to acentral processor which processes the data in accordance with a set ofrules, thereby determining a periodic balancing payment 300.Alternatively, the processor could simply calculate a penalty for eachcountry to pay.

By way of a simplified example, assume each of two carriers receivesfrom the other one hundred packages to deliver, and each carrier has athree-day delivery performance standard. If the first carrier delivers80% percent of the packages within the standard, and the second carrierdelivers 50% of the parcels within the standard, the second carrier willowe the first a balancing payment providing the agreed upon deliverycharges are the same. If delivery charges are not the same betweenCarrier 1 and Carrier 2, calculations may be made to determine whichcountry receives the balancing payment.

In its broadest sense, the invention may include systems that employ aone way performance incentive. For example, a first carrier may contractwith a second carrier to deliver a parcel originating with the firstcarrier. The amount of payment to the second carrier may be a functionof the second carrier's performance. The second carrier, for example,may receive a reduced payment for parcels not delivered (or wheredelivery is not attempted) within a predetermined time frame.

The performance criteria act as an incentive to encourage a deliveryservice to promptly deliver foreign-originated express mail. Presently,there has been no such incentive. By tying compensation to performance,the present system improves delivery of express mail in foreignjurisdictions.

Referring now to FIG. 2 there is shown a flowchart with scanning pointsnow in place. By availing itself of this existing framework, the presentinvention minimizes any need for scanning hardware or procedures.Scanning hardware is already in place. The fault it is in the failure ofpolicy to tie performance and compensation.

FIG. 2 tracks processing of a mailpiece on an international delivery.The process begins with step 400 when a customer mails a mailpiece. Whenreceived by the delivery service, in step 410, the mailpiece willundergo an acceptance scan, Scan A. The initial data related to themailpiece is inputted at that point. The mailpiece next passes into aprocessing center, step 420, where it undergoes Scan G, an enrouteprocessing scan. Next, step 430, the mailpiece embarks from itsoriginating country. At this step the mailpiece undergoes a B Scan and aC Scan. These scans relate to processing in the exchange office andassignment to transportation. Step 440 is international transport. AtStep 450, the mailpiece is received by the foreign country. D Scanrecords receipt of the mail piece at that point. Step 460 relates to themail piece passing through customs Scans E and F record entry into andout of customs. This information is important to the present inventionas time in customs, which is beyond the control of the delivery service,is not included in the calculation of in-country processing time. Step470 shows the mailpiece being handled at a processing plant. Another GScan, enroute processing takes place. Step 480 notes the final deliveryby the delivery service, the final time the mailpiece is handled by thedelivery service. Another Scan G can take place at that point. Finally,in Step 490 the mailpiece is delivered, or delivery is attempted. Scan Hcorresponds to an attempted delivery. Scan I corresponds to a successfuldelivery.

The processing and scans of FIG. 2 identify many of the standardprocedures that international deliverers and processors follow. Thus themethod and system of the present invention adapts easily to thisstructure.

While preferred embodiments of this invention have been shown anddescribed, modifications thereof can be made by one skilled in the artwithout departing from the spirit or teaching of this invention. Theembodiments described herein are exemplary only and are not limiting.Many variations and modifications of the system and apparatus arepossible and are within the scope of the invention. One of ordinaryskill in the art will recognize that the process just described mayeasily have steps added, taken away, or modified without departing fromthe principles of the present invention. Accordingly, the scope ofprotection is not limited to the embodiments described herein, but isonly limited by the claims which follow, the scope of which shallinclude all equivalents of the subject matter of the claims.

1. A method for delivering parcels across domains using a first carrierassociated with a first domain, and a second carrier associated with asecond domain, the method comprising: transporting, using the firstcarrier, a first parcel from a sender in the first domain addressed to arecipient in the second domain; transporting using the second carrier, asecond parcel from a sender in the second domain addressed to arecipient in the first domain; handing-off the first parcel from thefirst carrier to the second carrier; handing-off the second parcel fromthe second carrier to the first carrier; recording a first time keyed toreceipt of the first parcel by the second carrier; recording a secondtime keyed to receipt of the second parcel by the first carrier;delivering the first parcel to a recipient in the second domain usingthe second carrier; delivering the second parcel to a recipient in thefirst domain using the first carrier; recording a third time keyed todelivery of the first parcel to the recipient in the second domain;recording a fourth time keyed to delivery of the second parcel to therecipient in the first domain; calculating an elapsed time delivery timefor, the first parcel by subtracting the third time from the first time;calculating an elapsed time delivery for the second parcel bysubtracting the fourth time from the second time; consolidating theelapsed delivery time for the first parcel with elapsed delivery timedata for other parcels delivered by the second carrier; consolidatingthe elapsed delivery time for the second parcel with elapsed deliverytime data for other parcels delivered by the first carrier; determiningrelative performance of the first and second carriers based on theconsolidated data of each; and recording a credit in favor of thecarrier determined to have had greater relative performance.